Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow #John16

Martin Luther’s Courage and Compassion in the Face of the Black Plague

You may remember that Luther lived in Wittenberg, Germany, where he taught theology at the University of Wittenberg during the Middle Ages. He accused the Roman Catholic Church of departing from Scripture on serious issues such as salvation by grace alone through faith alone in the finished work of Christ alone.

And those who study Martin Luther will find that he was very forceful in his denunciations. In fact, he came across as blunt, stubborn, and rash, especially to our modern sensibilities. Here's just one example, if I can just read this for you to give you a sense of what I'm talking about.

In a pamphlet entitled, Against the Roman Papacy, an Institution of the Devil. Tell me what you really think, Martin. This is what he wrote about the Pope. May God punish you, I say, you shameless, barefaced liar, devil's mouthpiece who dares to spit out before God, before all the angels, before the dear Son, before all the world, your devil's filth.

Man, that's some preaching right there. We don't hear that much today, but that's how Martin Luther was. Now put this in perspective. This would almost be like saying that about, man, I'm trying to even think, because our society's changed so much it's hard to even envision this, but about the local police, the local sheriff or something, or someone who had the potential to have great control over your life and threaten you.

It's like saying that about your boss, right? Because at the time Luther said these things, and this was for most of his adult life, the Roman Catholic Church was the most powerful, not just ecclesiastical institution, but political institution.

And on more than one occasion, he had to flee for his life. Yet the same Luther, who courageously challenged earthly power, gained a reputation for his gracious bedside manner and ability to encourage.

One author wrote, the peculiar skill of the reformer in ministering to the sick was known far and wide, and he was in consequence very frequently requested by such, meaning when you were sick you wanted Martin Luther to come and comfort you.

And I had the privilege this week of reading many of these exchanges, recordings of them, where Luther would visit someone, sometimes people that were noble, sometimes people that no one else would think anything significant about.

And he had a gentle bedside manner with all of them. It was very precious to read some of these accounts. The limits though of both Luther's bravery and compassion were tested in 1527, when the Black Plague broke out in Wittenberg, claiming the lives of many.

Those who could fled refuge from the city. The local civil authority, Prince John, encouraged Luther to relocate his young family, 100 miles south to the city of Jena, where the University of Wittenberg had moved.

So his job was moving there. Why don't you move there with your job, Luther? Because you have a baby who's not even one, and one on the way, and a young wife. You need to get out of here. No one would have blamed him if he, like everyone else who could, fled the city.

But like a fireman racing into a burning building to save lives, Luther stayed and ministered to the bodies and souls who stayed in Wittenberg. In Luther's mind, the threat of death demanded that he spiritually prepare his neighbors to meet their creator.

Luther visited the sick and his wife, Katharina, opened up their home to be somewhat of a hospital. More than one person died in Luther's arms. Now stories like this, when we hear them, they can inspire us.

But they can also cause us to feel a lot of guilt. We are thankful such men and women as Martin and Katharina exist, but we cannot help asking whether we live up to their example. Are you like Martin Luther?

Are you like his wife opening up your home? We just had, in 2020, we had something, I was gonna say similar, it really wasn't, but we thought it was gonna be similar, perhaps, at the outset. How many of you would would want to do that, right?

It's impressive. But yet a closer examination of Luther during this time reveals he harbored the same concerns we do. He worried his pregnant wife and infant would get sick. He writes about praying for protection, fumigating, that is airing out his home, taking medicine and avoiding unnecessary exposure.

Luther was not careless, nor was he unlike us in his fears. Yet he overcame them by drawing strength from Christ and not himself. And he wrote this in a letter that only one person during this time stayed back, with the exception of the chaplains.

So the chaplains, this university was connected to the church, the chaplains stayed back to minister and one other person besides Luther, that's it. But he says in this letter, Christ is here so that we are not alone and he will triumph.

So Luther wasn't alone. And so we are faced with this question, what makes a man like Martin Luther? Someone bold, a risk-taker, undeterred by controversy, yet also somehow at peace in his spirit and able to give peace to others.

It's kind of a unique characteristic, isn't it? It's the same thing our Lord had. I would like to suggest our passage this morning is the answer to that question, so let us read it. John chapter 16, 29 through 33.

Peace in Christ from John 16:29-33

His disciples said, lo, now you are speaking plainly and are not using a figure of speech. Now we know that you know all things and have no need for anyone to question you. By this we believe that you came from God.

Jesus answered them, do you now believe? Behold an hour is coming and has already come for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave me alone. And yet I am not alone because the Father is with me.

These things I have spoken to you so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage. I have overcome the world. Some of you may know that this passage is part of a larger portion of Scripture called the Upper Room Discourse, which stretches from John chapter 13 to John chapter 17.

It is John's retelling through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of the events which took place during our Lord's last supper with his disciples, and is the longest teaching recorded in Scripture of our Lord.

It's his final words before the event of his crucifixion. It is considered by many to be one of the most profound portions of Scripture. We frequently hear it quoted at funerals, and Martin Luther often referred to it in personal letters to those enduring hardship.

It is here we gain a clear view into the heart of Jesus for his disciples. He desired them to have peace and courage even when approaching the darkest time I would like to suggest in all of human history.

That time between Jesus's trial and his resurrection, when their faith was called into question. Jesus is saying, I think, to you this morning the same thing, and to me. These things I have spoken to you so that in me you may have peace.

Now it does not take a genius to discover that we need peace in our modern world. Despite surrounding ourselves with convenience, entertainment, instant communication, unlimited access to neurological medications, our society is marked by anxiety and depression.

Little over a year ago, Psychology Today reported on a study that claimed that over 25 percent of worldwide increases in anxiety and depression disorders occurred during the COVID experience. The youngest age group that had these elevated levels were those from 20 to 39 years old.

Last week Pennsylvania State University released a report based on data from counseling centers at 180 colleges and universities that showed a gradual increase in students anxiety and depression over the last 12 years.

Most notable were increases in reported social anxiety and histories of traumatic experience. And this is all happening at a time when there are more professional support services, mental health facilities, and other interventions available than ever before in the history of the world.

Could it be that professionals offer no real solution to help men and women with anxiety and depression? I saw the other day that the World Economic Forum, some of you know what that is, published an article suggesting that getting involved in the fight against climate change was a way to fight anxiety and depression.

We live in a world that's grasping for any kind of meaning it can, anything that will make my life meaningful, as long as it's not the Bible, as long as it's not God. Because as soon as you start entertaining the thought that we're here for a purpose from our Creator and we violated His commands, what does that mean about us?

It means we're sinful. We need to acknowledge that. And that's something that the world does not want to do. Well friends, I have news for you this morning. We sin. Others sin against us. The Bible teaches we live in a sin-cursed world.

In addition, the devil blinds the minds of unbelievers and seeks the destruction of believers, as if we didn't already have enough to worry about. Apart from Christ, you should feel anxious and depressed.

It makes sense. If atheism were true, you would have no purpose. If false religions were true, you could never achieve your purpose because you can never be good enough. You're always on a hamster wheel.

Praise God those things aren't true. In either case, we have no way to overcome the evil that afflicts us. It is only within the truth of Christianity that satisfaction is possible because Jesus Christ broke the curse of sin and death and sits victorious at the right hand of the Father.

Acknowledging our sin is the prerequisite for gaining lasting peace because if we think we are capable in our sinful state of overcoming the world of flesh and the devil, the very authors of anxiety and depression, we are sorely mistaken.

We must first be in Christ. In John 1633, Jesus reaches down to us and tells us, peace is possible, look to me. There are four important truths I want us to see in this passage. The first is that we who are in Christ are never alone.

Even when we feel alone, God is present. Remind yourself of that when you feel alone, that in the midst of your troubles and trials and tribulations, God is there with you in those things. The second truth is that being at peace requires us to be in Christ.

You cannot experience peace while disobeying Christ. You must submit to his desires and not your own. The third truth is that we will experience distress in this world. It is a lie to think that a perfect world exists on this side of heaven.

Many are trying to build that. It won't happen, so we need to set our expectations accordingly. And the fourth truth is that Jesus already conquered sin and suffering. This means that any tribulation in this life is temporary, so live as a victor.

Live as someone who's already won. You're on the winning team. Now, I do not want you to get the impression that Christians are immune from the sins connected to anxiety and depression. Indeed, all of us will likely entertain these conditions at some point, and there are many here today currently experiencing them in some way.

The Apostle Paul would not need to remind the believers at the Church of Philippi to be anxious for nothing if that was true. There would be no need for Jesus to instruct his disciples to take courage if bravery during challenging circumstances was simply automatic.

However, I would like to remind you that Jesus spoke these words moments after Judas left to betray him, and hours before enduring the greatest torment ever experienced in human history. He was falsely accused, abandoned by his closest friends, physically tortured, and in his human nature temporarily forsaken by his own father.

Yet he says in John 14, 27, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. His peace, peace he experienced even during that time. The man of sorrows prophesied in Isaiah 53 was also a man of perfect confidence and tranquility.

There was never one moment his faith wavered. Every step between Gethsemane and Golgotha was made with absolute confidence that God's purpose would be fulfilled. Every crack of the whip he endured on his raw back, every gasping breath he struggled to take on the cross was made without even a hint of a drop of doubt.

This is why the author of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 12, 2 that it was for the joy set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame, and he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. No matter what you may be struggling with this morning, we all struggle with something, don't we?

We have an example in an advocate in Jesus Christ. Look with me at verse 29. His disciples said, lo, now you are speaking plainly and are not using a figure of speech. Now we know that you know all things and have no need for anyone to question you.

By this we believe that you came from God. Jesus answered them, do you now believe? Behold, an hour is coming and has already come for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave me alone, and yet I am not alone because the Father is with me.

And we find here in this passage that after three years of living with Jesus, the disciples still struggle with their faith in Christ. Peter and Thomas often receive a bad reputation for this because Peter denied Christ three times, Thomas demanded physical proof before he would believe that Jesus had actually risen from the dead.

But Jesus says here that actually it was all his disciples who abandoned him. Indeed, we actually see that it's only John that is present, this disciple John, during his crucifixion. All the rest are gone.

Put yourself in Jesus shoes for a moment. You're sharing a meal with your closest friends knowing they are about to abandon you. What do you say to them? You're probably not going to offer them comfort.

I think I know what I would be saying to them, right? Amazingly, Jesus expects their abandonment but still comforts them. He knew, though his disciples' love for themselves was inflated, as ours often is, they did love him nonetheless, and they would worry for him.

They would also worry for themselves and wonder if God was still in control during the challenging time of his crucifixion. And he prepares them to handle their concern by reminding them that the Father was with him.

That's the first thing. Now, this reality applies to us as well. Earlier in chapter 16 verses 26 through 27, Jesus says, I do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf, for the Father himself loves you.

This means we have access to the Father directly. Later in chapter 17 verses 17 through 21, Jesus prays for those also who would believe in him through the ministry of the Apostles. He says that they may all be one, even as you, Father, are in me and I in you, and they also may be in us.

So Jesus prays directly not just for his disciples, but for those here this morning who have put their trust in him, that they would enjoy the communion with God that Jesus enjoyed with his Father during his earthly ministry.

That same connection we have access to. We don't often think of that. Finally, there is a theme throughout Scripture that God is with his people. In Deuteronomy 31 .6, Moses inspires the children of Israel before crossing the Jordan by telling them, the Lord your God is the one who goes with you.

This is later picked up in Hebrews 13 .5 and applied to us, New Testament believers. God promised King Solomon in 1 Kings chapter 6 verse 13, I will dwell among the sons of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel.

We also find numerous verses in both the Old and New Testaments promising that God hears the prayers of his people. Now the point is that, like Jesus, we who are in Christ have access to our Creator even when we lack access to everyone else.

Even when we can't get our doctor on the phone, or our pastor on the phone, or our best friend on the phone, we still have access to someone else and none of the technology that serves as a barrier sometimes inhibits our relationship with him.

Jesus frequently left social distraction in order to commune with his Father in seclusion. There's one thing I am concerned about for us in our modern world is that we occupy ourselves with distraction so much that there is no room left to seek God in a quiet place.

Being with God is like other relationships in the sense that to build intimacy and trust you actually have to put in some time and work. And the wonderful thing is that God is already waiting for us and ready to give us strength when we do that.

Read verse 33 with me if you would. It says this, These things I have spoken to you so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world. Now there are two modes of living identified in this verse.

One is in Christ, the other is being in the world. So you can be in Christ, you can be in the world. Now in the context, the term world is used in various ways by John. It's used here to refer to a system opposed to God, simply put.

And we can see this in chapter 14, 17. He says that the world cannot receive the Holy Spirit. In verse 19 of chapter 14, that the world would not see him after the crucifixion. In verse 30 of chapter 14, he identifies Satan as the ruler of the world.

In chapter 15, verse 18, he says that the world hates him. And in 1611, that the world is judged. And the next verse, that the world would rejoice at his crucifixion. So clearly the world is that unbelieving element of the environment we inhabit given over to sin.

It's the sensual billboard that you pass on your way to work. It is the raunchy language you hear when you go shopping. It's the greed you encounter at the mall. It's all around us pressuring us to be less like Christ and more like it.

And we feel this pressure. In 1st John chapter 2, verse 17, John describes it as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life. There exist many groups today attempting to escape the world through asceticism, legalism, monasticism, and even communism, only to find that lust and pride continue to exist even in the most controlled environments.

This is because mankind cannot escape himself. In other words, people take the world with them into whatever scheme they think will save them from it. Let me repeat that. People take the world with them into any scheme they think will save them from it.

In can't escape this. This is just where we live. It's our address. Now as believers, we have no immediate way to escape our environment. We cannot help where we live, but we can remember where we are from.

John 15, 19 states, you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world. It is our job while living in the world, all around us, to not buy into the scams that it's trying to run on us. Promises of fulfillment in an extramarital affair, or security through swindling others, or comfort at the end of a bottle, are just as far-fetched as a Nigerian prince offering you ten million dollars in exchange for your bank account numbers.

It's a scam. Sounds really good. It's not gonna happen. What happens really is spiritual ruin. But even if we successfully avoid being like the world, we cannot avoid the pain of living with the effects of sin all around us.

We see the consequences of sin in our bodies as we age. We feel the sting of death and grief that comes with that. We endure the effects of other people's sin against us. And this is what Jesus means when he says that in the world you will have tribulation.

That's what he's talking about. The term tribulation is often used in connection to the suffering that comes with persecution, grief, or judgment. And we all experience these realities. Not one of us is exempt from that.

But there is good news. We who are abiding in Christ have peace. Isaiah 26 3 declares, the steadfast mind you will keep in perfect peace because he trusts in you. The peace we have access to is nothing short of the peace Christ experienced during his earthly ministry, even in those dark times of persecution.

And there are numerous ways unregenerate man tries to find peace, isn't there? That's why Jesus separates his peace from the kind of peace the world gives. The world can only offer a temporary change in circumstance at best.

A new job, new car, maybe a new vacation holds the elusive key to gaining peace. For the believer, these things can function as blessings from the Lord in our lives, but at best they're momentary satisfaction.

They do not begin to approach the grandeur of what Jesus is talking about here. The word for peace conveys a sense of harmony, tranquility, and calm. It is what the angels proclaimed to the shepherds the night Jesus was born, saying, glory to God in the highest, peace on earth among men with whom he is pleased.

It is what the prophet Zechariah in Luke 1 prophesied concerning the coming of the Messiah, that he would guide our feet into the way of peace. It is why the message central to our Christian faith is called the gospel of peace.

Jesus Christ made a way for us to be reconciled to God through his life and death, thereby restoring peace between man and God. And this is not a superficial kind of peace either. It's not the kind of peace we're enjoying with China right now, right, where we are not technically at war, but we could be at any moment.

It is similar to the peace you experience when you pay off your car or your house. You do not have to worry about the bank taking your property because they have no claim against you at that point. But it goes so much deeper than that, doesn't it?

It is the kind of peace you experience within the bounds of an intimate relationship. Perhaps in a friendship or a marriage we get a sense of this, in which there is no room available for resentment or bitterness.

Now all human relationships don't come up to a hundred percent on this, right? Even the most intimate. But our relationship with our Creator is perfect because he is perfect. Jesus beckons us this morning to live in him even though we are currently in the world.

In chapters 14 through 15, Jesus instructs his disciples in what it means to be in him. First he reinforces the closeness of their relationship by telling them about the place he is preparing for them in heaven.

He says, I go to prepare a place for you. And you know when I read this, the sense that I get is he desires for us to be with him. It's not, when I was younger I thought it wouldn't be great to be in heaven, streets of gold and everything's perfect and there's no tears.

I think there's something else Jesus is saying here though. He's saying, I want you to be where I am, in the proximity to me. It's kind of like in our society when parents move to be with their children.

We're very transitive, so people live all over the place. Or children move across the country to be with their parents, right? Because they want to be in proximity with one another. That's what Jesus wants, to live together, to be near each other.

And this is the God who created you, inviting you to dwell with him for eternity. That's kind of mind-blowing really. Although we're so used to reading these words sometimes, I don't think we feel the full effect of this.

But we should. He then introduces the coming of the Holy Spirit who will comfort us and help us remember Christ's teachings. Now, it's currently popular, as evidenced by superhero movies and shows, to imagine what it would be like to have supernatural abilities.

I don't know if any of you have ever imagined this, right? How many of your worries would disappear if you could avoid Route 9 and just fly to church? No traffic lights, right? That's probably the one I would pick.

Or what if you had the ability to read people's minds? Man, now I don't know if I want that ability. But you could avoid unhealthy relationships, you could avoid bad business decisions, there's a lot of things you could avoid, right?

Yet as believers, we have something far greater than any of the abilities you'll see in a Marvel movie. Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 16 that the Spirit of God dwells in you. Spirit of God.

That's better than being bit by a spider. Spirit of God dwells in you. He directs your life if you give him control. I mean, that's the God of the universe, the miraculous God who created this planet, controls you and loves you and makes your path straight.

And when you don't know what to do, He gives you options and He shows you where to go. I can't ask for anything more than that. Finally, Jesus instructs His disciples to remain in Him the way a branch abides in the vine.

The result is that we bear fruit, and in this case we depend on Him, His teaching. That's what that means. His example, His influence. We consider Him in all our ways. We thank Him for His blessings and live as if He were present with us because He is.

That's what it means to abide or to remain in Christ. We draw our strength from Him, and the resulting peace we experience is something a mindset on the flesh hostile toward God cannot access through any human innovation.

There is only one way to have peace with God, and it is through being in Christ. Now when you take a literature class in high school, you learn about the different kind of conflict narratives that make for interesting stories.

There are conflicts that are man against man in a story, like a battle or something. You can have stories where it's man against society. A lot of the thrillers are like that, fighting the machine. Man against nature is another theme.

This is a personal favorite of mine. I like those survivalist type shows and movies where you have to try to make sure that you live for, you know, 40 days on nothing or something in the Amazon. And the last one, though, is man against himself.

Internal conflict. Okay, now exciting stories tend to have more than one example of conflict in them. I've always thought the most interesting stories are the ones that focus on internal conflict, that last one.

And one of my favorite movies, some of you may have seen it, Ben-Hur, not the new one, the Charlton Heston one from the 60s, focuses on a man who endures betrayal, slavery, shipwreck, and violent competition while racing chariots.

And not to mention, I mean, he loses basically his fiance and his family to leprosy. I mean, it's a man who endures a lot of trials from just about every angle. So every conflict in his life that you can see in literature is present.

So he's at war with man, society, and nature. But the most important conflict in the whole film is internal conflict. That's what captures your attention. It is his desire for revenge that drives him.

He wants to avenge the person who stole from him everything that meant anything to him. And there's a scene at the end of the film, if you've seen it, where he, it's a long film, he comes to to the end of himself and he's looking at Christ being crucified before him.

And he says, I felt the sword drop from my hand. What has this man done? He's innocent. And it's a powerful scene, it's a powerful thought to think about, because here's a man that endured every kind of conflict, greater amounts than Hur had endured, or you and I had endured in our lives.

And here he is on the cross saying, Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. Christ was at peace. Even on the cross, Christ was at peace. Well, I think I'm missing a note here. I wanted to bring to you a thought from Martin Luther, but I'll just summarize it for you.

Martin Luther, in many of the letters that I read of him comforting those who are sick or facing persecution, constantly comes back to this theme in John chapter 16 and reminds them, almost without fail, he's got to bring up that verse, that God is with them in the trials, to be of good cheer that he has overcome the world.

And one of the things, I'll be personal, is that convicts me is how often is that thought in the front of my mind, is on the tip of my tongue? How often do those words come out of my mouth in comforting others?

How often, I'm a guy, do I want to problem-solve? Someone's got a problem, my wife especially, right? That's who I interact with the most time. Not that she has more problems than others, but she's just the one that I happen to live with.

She comes to me. And what do I immediately start doing, every time without fail? Well, there's two options. Option one is we fix it, and we strategize, and we plan, and we attack this thing. Option two is, well, there's nothing we can do, so get over it.

Those are kind of the two things, right? We just can't, you know, focus on it anymore. It's out of our control. So it's very practical, right? Men tend to be a little bit more like that. And what I saw in Martin Luther shamed me to some extent, but it convicted me and inspired me.

Here was a man who endured far greater trials than I've ever endured, both physical maladies, he had health issues that were very severe, and being persecuted in ways that I've never been persecuted. And yet his mind is constantly thinking about Christ, about what is to come, about eternity.

He conformed his earthly temporal existence to eternal existence. He lived in the light of eternity every day, and so it just came out of him. When someone was suffering, he could immediately relate, and he could immediately give them the only cure that can alleviate suffering.

Now, we are not promised perfection, obviously. We are to expect tribulation, as Christ said. But it doesn't mean that in those moments of tribulation and trial, we don't have a peace, a deep peace. Not one that's contingent on circumstance, but one that is steadfast and knows that God is in control, and we don't have to worry.

This isn't my home, I'm passing through, and soon I will be with him. Nothing can take that away, not height nor death. Angels, principalities, things in heaven, things on earth, no created thing can take away the love that Christ has for us.

And so I would encourage you this morning, if you don't have that peace that Jesus talks about, that comes with abiding in him, with being intimate with him in this life, then maybe you need to think about that.

Where are you going to spend eternity? Is it gonna be with him, or is it gonna be in torment? Because you've chosen the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the boastful pride of life, the things that are opposed to God.

Jesus beckons you this morning to repent, to turn from your sin, to turn to him. He's a kind man, he's not a cruel God who's there waiting to point a finger at you every time you mess up, so that he can then judge you and make you feel bad, and no, he took all of that.

He took the guilt, he took the effects of sin, all of that. In fact, the tense in John chapter 16, verse 33, and remember Jesus is saying this before he has even died on the cross, he's saying already, I've overcome the world.

It's a done deal. You're on the winning team, is what he's saying. You're on the winning team. It's like, you know, if you're watching a sports game, and there's five minutes left on the clock, and Jesus is up about a thousand to zero with the devil.

Well, there's five minutes left, but you know how it's gonna work out, and that's how it is even in our temporal existence. When we see the evil around us, and it grieves our hearts, or the suffering that just comes with being in a sin-cursed world, we need to just look up at the clock.

We realize there might be five minutes left on it, but I can see the score. That is what brings perfect peace, knowing that you're on the winning team. So if you aren't this morning, please repent of your sins.

Put your faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. You can talk with with myself or anyone that you've seen up here this morning, and we would be happy to walk you through what that is, what it means to be in a relationship with Christ, and then relish the victory for all of eternity.

Let's pray. Father, we come before you now, thankful for your Word, thankful for your Son, Jesus Christ, who comes to us, Lord, with words of peace, words of conviction, Lord, but words of inspiration and peace.

I pray, Father, that that would be the experience of all of us, not just today, but this week, as we go about our lives, and we even get cut off in traffic, and endure things that we don't like. May we remember, Father, that we are on the winning team, that you have conquered the grave, you've conquered sin, you've conquered death, and that brings a peace, even in the trials of this life.

In Jesus' name, Amen.